Our cruise up Norway’s inside passage led to Narvik, an ice-free industrial port with strategic significance: high-quality iron ore from Sweden comes by rail to Narvik for shipment by sea to buyers all over the world. This made Narvik a target during World War II, as Nazi Germany sought to monopolize the ore shipments for their war machine, and Allied forces tried to fight back. The movie “Narvik” portrays part of this struggle for control during the early parts of the war.
Here is an afternoon view of a Narvik ore handling, storage, and transfer facility. Multiple trains carrying iron ore arrive in Narvik each day and unload ore into covered storage areas like you see above. Since it takes several trainloads of ore to load a ship, the amount of ore on hand varies considerably as it arrives daily and leaves one ship at time. Covered storage helps with dust control, and also keeps the ore from getting wet and freezing in winter.Closer view of ore being loaded into this freighter. The ore goes by conveyer belt into the blue transfer point to be funneled into the holds of the ship. This vessel sits lower in the water towards the rear, so they are apparently loading it from back to front. Swedish ore goes through Narvik to China and other industrial nations around the world.We had originally planned to see wolves up close and personal at Polar Park, a wildlife park near Narvik. However, we had to cancel because of last minute requirements: participants had to be at least 5’4″ tall, able to kneel for up to 15 minutes, and not use any medications (like insulin?) that change their blood sugar levels. We struck out on all three criteria, so we opted for a tour of the city instead. Most of Narvik was destroyed in WWII, so the many of the city’s buildings are relatively new construction. Like other Norwegian communities, Narvik has a church, and here is a photo of its steeple.We were having showery weather when we reached the church, but the dampness did not deter the women’s ensemble that turned out to greet us with some traditional Norwegian songs. The lady on the left was working as a tour guide for one of our groups, which is why she wears the audiovox on the red lanyard.The church was octagonal, and our tour guide (above) explained that it could seat about 240 people. It rarely has very many people attending worship, but our tour group was large enough to fill much of the main level (there was more seating on a second level around most of the octagon). The church is active enough to have an organist, and she treated us to three verses of Amazing Grace. Surprisingly, most of the tourists knew at least the first verse and spontaneously burst into song — wonderful to hear!Cute tourist, raincoat in hand, that I photographed on the dock near our cruise ship, the Viking Star. She even agreed to have dinner with me!Sunset view on our way out of the Narvik harbor. The skies had partially cleared, and we were headed back out into the inside passage en route to Leknes on the Lofoten Islands, our next stop.Could not resist adding a photo of our favorite on-board pastries: almond-covered, almond paste filled croissants. The coffee bar on Deck 1 served the best coffee on the ship, and these freshly baked pastries were available as long as each morning’s supply lasted. Fortunately, we walked enough that we did not gain much if any weight during the cruise.
Next travel post: Leknes and the Lofoten Islands
P.S. If you missed some of our earlier posts from this visit to Norway and Iceland, a link at the bottom of this post will take you to the previous one. And if you want to be notified when the next post comes out, you can add your email address in a box on the right side of the web page.
Amazing pictures. Makes we want to go there.
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